Jack Grealish, Stefan Ortega and James McAtee are all missing from City's squad for tonight's preseason friendly with Italian partners Palermo.
All three players are transfer-listed this summer and Guardiola, who's squad numbers 31 players, said: "We need a little bit (fewer numbers). I don’t like (lots) of players. A lot of players should leave.
"The transfer window is moving a lot and many things are going to happen. We’ll see what happens and how we will handle it. We’ll handle it the best as possible.
"The good mood is quite similar to what we were living at the Club World Cup. Maybe we missed some friendly games to prepare and arrive the first three games against Wolves, Spurs and Brighton a little bit better but we needed to rest and decided to make more training sessions than play games."
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